"My government shall continue with the use of the multicurrency system up until the current negative economic fundamentals have been addressed to give credence to the introduction of the local currency," Mnangagwa said.

In 2009, wracked by hyper-inflation, Zimbabwe dumped the local dollar and adopted the US greenback and other foreign currencies, including the South African rand.

But the economy remains deep in the mire, crippled by policies adopted under Mnangagwa's predecessor Robert Mugabe.

On September 10, new finance minister Mthuli Ncube said he backed a return of the Zimbabwe dollar, "the sovereign currency", to help economic revival. But, he said, this had to be done in conjunction with "fiscal policy".